Explosive and process of making same.



PATENTED DEC. 13, 1904.

A. MULLER-JACOBS.

EXPLOSIVE AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME.

APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 13. 1902,

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2'SHEETSSHEET 1.

N0 MODEL.

jwwd Miller Z alfo'anua PATENTED DEC. 13, 1904.

A. MULLER-JACOBS.

BXPLOSIVE AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAMB.

APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 13. 1902.

2 SHEETSl-BHEET 2,

N0 MODEL.

UNTTnn STA-TIES Patented December is, ieoa PATENT Clarion,

ARM-AND MULLER-JACOBS, on NEW YORK, N. in, AssTeNon To CATHERINE MULLER-JACOBS, or BROOKLYN, NEW roan, AND EDWARD warn- GARTNER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ex ansive nan Psooess or rename sane.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters I'atent No. 777,125, dated December 13, 190%.

Application filed June 13,1902. Serial No. 111,543. (lilo specimens.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARMANI) MnLLER-JA- ooBs, a'citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in' the Manufacture of Explosives; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and ex act description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to an improved explosive and a method of producing the same.

My object is to produce by methods which will greatly minimize the dangers incident to manufacture and use explosives that shall be easy of manipulation, safe in handling, adapted to use in a variety of connections, and in which the elements shall be so closely and intimately associated as to produce practically perfect and instantaneous combinationand consequent enhancement of potential energy-c'. a, development of the gaseous products of the composition.

In the production of the explosive by my improved method I utilize to a large extent apparatus such as is ordinarily used in the dyeing/sizing, and printing of textile fabrics and warps and in the coating or grounding and printing of wall-paper and other paper, thus contributing to cheapness of manufacture, or my method maybe carried out with some degree of success by hand.

While my invention resides in the novel metliod or process independent of any particular kind of machinery or apparatus that may be used,'yet I have in the accompanying drawings illustrated a type of apparatus that may be employed. 1

I In the drawings, Figure 1 is a central vertical longitudinal section through tanks containing a bath of nitric and sulfuric acids and also showing in central vertical transverse section rollers used in connection with the tanks. Fig. 2 is a central vertical transverse section of the drying cylinders or rollers. Fig.3 is a view similar to Fig. 1 of a tank containing a bath of caustic alkalior the like and of rollers used in connection therewith. Fig. 4-is a view similar to Fig. 1 of a tank containing a bath of fresh water and of rollers used in connection therewith. Fig.5 is a view similar to Fig. 1 of the drying-room and of the rollers used in connection therewith, and Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 1 of tanks containing suitablechemicals for increasing or decreas-'v ing the explosive energy of impregnated material passed therethrough and of rollers used in connection therewith.

Referring to the drawings in detail, in carrying out my improved process I take ordinary cotton cloth, boiled, bleached, and dried, wind the same on a roller, and thence pass it by hand or machinery such as is ordinarily used for mordanting, dyeing, and padding or sizing processes in the textile industry, preferably over a roller or rollers a, through a mixture of concentrated nitric and sulfuric acid in about the proportion of one part of nitric to three parts of sulfuric, the same being contained in an appropriate stone or glass vessel or vessels A. In its course through said vessels the cloth is also passed over a roller or The cloth being'thus treated is rollers a. also passed between two or more heavy rollers a preferably of glass or porcelain, by which the surplus acid is pressed out and allowed to flow back into'the vessel, where it may be again used. The cloth is then wound upon another cylinder or roller or upon cylinders or rollers B and allowed to stand for from one to three hours, after which it is passed through a bath of dilute caustic alkali or a carbonate of an alkali or an alkaline earth, care being taken that this latter bath never becomes acid. This alkaline bath is contained in an appropriate vessel, tank, or vat C, containing any number of" rollers 0, over which the cloth passes in its course through the vessel 0. The cloth is then thoroughly washed in a continuous stream of fresh water contained in avessel or tank 1), containing rollers 01,

' by applying to one or both sides of the warp or.

heit, the currents of hot air entering the room E through pipe 6', and thence through aper tures e in a partition 6 to the cloth on the rollers e, (the apertured partition thus acting evenly to divide the currents of hot air over the different rollers,) and thence through shuttered openings 6 in the ceiling or roof of the room. The cloth enters the room at the aperture 6 between rollers 6 and after leaving I o, the room E is then wound again upon a suitable 7 cylinder or roller.. (Not shown.) This cloth now constitutes without further treatment a powerful explosive, somewhat similar in its properties to guncotton, though more stable and uniform in its efiects. I may proceed further, however, to increase or reduce its explosive energy or retard oraccelerate its action cloth, as by printing, certain other chemicals adapted to obtain the object desired, these chemicals'being mixed with a suitable adhesive and placed in a vessel or vessels F and ap-.

terial-as", for example, gum arabic, tragacanth, starch or its derivatives, glue, gelatin, albumen, casein, or the like. I may also use nitroglycerin, nitrostarch,'nitromannite, or the like in printing, or I may print with mixtures appropriately thickened, as aforesaid, containing finely divided amorphous substances, such as sulfur and carbon, in the form of lampblack, or solid hydrocarbons, with or without insoluble chromates, fulminates,or the like, there being no danger of explosion during the process ofmanufacture so long as the materials operated upon are moist and the temperature kept sufficiently low, in most cases not'to exceed 100 to 105 Fahrenheit.

By thus printing upon the nitrated cotton with certain of the various chemicals referred to I am able to produce an explosive of any desired intensity or rapidity. These chemicals are contained in the vessels F, as stated, in which revolve rollers f. Located above and in juxtaposition but revolving in the 0pposite direction to said rollers are larger rollersf,these latter rollers being located radially about a large roller f and between these rollersf and this roller f the cloth passes, being fed therebetween over small guidingrollers f, the cloth finally passing over the guidingroller f.

If desired, for certain purposes instead of using the cotton fabric nitrated, as above set out,I may print with the chemicals stated upon any other kind of textile fabric in its natural state--such as cotton, silk, artificial silk, mo-

of concentrated water solution of gumarabic;'

After printing the fabric or warp in the manner usually employed in printing'with colors in the textile industry the product is dried in the usual manner, care being taken that the temperature shall not exceed 100 to 105 Fahrenheit. The product is then preferably cut into narrow ribbon-like strips to accord with the width or size of the caps, cartridges, shells, or bombs which are to be filled therewith, the prepared strips being tightly rolled by hand or machinery, when they are ready to be inserted. Warps or yarns thus impregnated and rendered v explosive may be also wound upon hollow frames or cylinders of explosive composition or easily-inflammable material, such as celluloid or other suitable substance, the interior being adapted to be filled with any appropriate supplementary explosive. The product thus made can be readily exploded in the ordinary way, as by detonation, friction,

'concussion, or the like.

Having thus fully described my invention,

what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The method of manufacturing explosives, which consists in printing upon the surface of a nitrocellulose with a solution of picrate of ammonia and chlorate of potassium, substantially as described.

2. The method of manufacturing explosives, which consists in printing upon the surface of a nitrocelluldse with a solution of picrate of ammonia, chlorate of potassium, and asuitable adhesive, substantially as described.

3. The method of manufacturing explosives, which consists in printing upon the surface of a nitrocellulose with a solution of picrate of ammonia, chlorate of potassium, and gumtragacanth, substantially as described.

4. The method of manufacturing explosives,

which consists in printing upon the surface of a nitrocellulose with a water solution of picrate of ammonia and. chlorate of potassium, substantially as described.

5. The method of manufacturing explosives, which consists in printing upon the surface of a nitrocellulose with a Water solution of picrate of ammonia and chlorate of potassium, witha suitable adhesive, substantially as described.

6. The method of manufacturing explosives, which consists in printing upon the surface of an explosive cellulose compound with a solution of picrate ofammonia, chlorate of potassium,and gum-tragacanth, substantially as described.

7. The method of manufacturing explosives, which consists in printing upon the surface of a cellulose, that has been treated to suitable acids and alkalies, with a water solution of picrate ofammonia, chlorate of potassium, and

gum-tragacanth, substantially as described.

8. As a composition of-matter, an explosive cellulose compound having applied to the surface'thereof a mixture of picrate of ammonia and chlorate of potassium, substantially as described.

9. As acomposition of matter, an explosive cellulose compound having appliedto the. surface thereof a mixture of picrate of ammonia, chlorate of potassium, and an adhesive, substantially as described.

10. As a composition of matter, an explosive cellulose compound having applied to the surface thereof a mixture of picrate of ammonia,

chlorate of potassium and gum-tragacanth,

substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aifix my signature in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ARMAND MULLER-JACOBS. Witnesses:

FREDERICK W. ZIEMER, FRANK -M. KLEMMER. 

